UN Supports African-Led Initiative to Change World Maps
World
The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution calling for wider use of maps that more accurately represent the relative sizes of continents. A total of 164 countries, including Uzbekistan, voted in favor. The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution, while six countries abstained.
The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection or establish a mandatory replacement for it. Developed by Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator in 1569, the projection preserves directions, making it useful for maritime navigation. However, transferring the Earth’s surface onto a flat map significantly distorts area, with territories closer to the poles appearing much larger.
Greenland is a prominent example: on a Mercator map, it can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa, although Africa is about 14 times larger. Northern Europe and North America are also substantially enlarged compared with regions closer to the equator.
The UN resolution calls on governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps when the relative size of territories is important. Equal Earth was developed in 2018.
Togo led negotiations on behalf of a group of African countries with the support of the African Union. The resolution describes correcting such distortions as “an act of restoring cognitive justice and redressing the harm that has occurred.” Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey stressed that the initiative was not directed against the Mercator projection and was not intended to impose a single way of representing the world.
The United States took the opposite position. A US representative described the resolution as part of a “much broader and radical ideological project” and specifically criticized references to reparations and “cognitive justice.”
France announced plans to abandon the Mercator projection on its world maps. Ukraine supported efforts to correct historical distortions affecting Africa and other parts of the Global South, but raised concerns about how some Equal Earth maps depict Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. The European Union also backed the resolution, stressing that it concerns only the relative size of territories and does not affect sovereignty, territorial status or internationally recognized borders.
The General Assembly resolution is non-binding. The Mercator projection will remain in use because no map projection can transfer the curved surface of the Earth onto a flat plane without distortion.
Greenland is a prominent example: on a Mercator map, it can appear roughly comparable in size to Africa, although Africa is about 14 times larger. Northern Europe and North America are also substantially enlarged compared with regions closer to the equator.
The UN resolution calls on governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the Equal Earth projection and other equal-area maps when the relative size of territories is important. Equal Earth was developed in 2018.
Togo led negotiations on behalf of a group of African countries with the support of the African Union. The resolution describes correcting such distortions as “an act of restoring cognitive justice and redressing the harm that has occurred.” Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey stressed that the initiative was not directed against the Mercator projection and was not intended to impose a single way of representing the world.
The United States took the opposite position. A US representative described the resolution as part of a “much broader and radical ideological project” and specifically criticized references to reparations and “cognitive justice.”
France announced plans to abandon the Mercator projection on its world maps. Ukraine supported efforts to correct historical distortions affecting Africa and other parts of the Global South, but raised concerns about how some Equal Earth maps depict Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. The European Union also backed the resolution, stressing that it concerns only the relative size of territories and does not affect sovereignty, territorial status or internationally recognized borders.
The General Assembly resolution is non-binding. The Mercator projection will remain in use because no map projection can transfer the curved surface of the Earth onto a flat plane without distortion.
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